Over 125,000 hectares of forest lands were rehabilitated last year, according to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
The DENR reported that 116.5 million tree seedlings have been planted on 125,214 hectares of forests covered by the government’s Expanded National Greening Program (E-NGP) as of November 2018.
Moreover, the agency raised some 144.8 million native and fast-growing tree species as planting materials, from January to November 2018.
About 3.3 million bamboo culms or cuttings and 1.72 million mangrove propagules and beach forest tree seedlings have been produced, exceeding the 2018 targets of 3.1 million and 1.6 million, respectively.
E-NGP is the government’s flagship reforestation project.
In 2018, the E-NGP generated a total of 334,317 jobs which resulted in the hiring of 52,872 people in plantation site development, plantation maintenance and protection, and establishment and operation of seedling nurseries.
The reforestation program also serves a national strategy to ensure food security, poverty reduction, environmental stability, and biodiversity conservation.
It started as a six-year forest rehabilitation program that aimed to cover 1.5 million hectares of open forest lands with trees by the end of 2016.
In a bid to rehabilitate additional 7.1 million hectares of forests, the program was extended until 2028 through an executive order.
Meanwhile, the DENR also made progress in its forest protection and anti-illegal logging efforts.
The agency reported that some 108,000 kilometers of forest line have been patrolled by 1,175 forest protection officers who were hired and trained under the Lawin Forest and Biodiversity Protection System developed by the DENR and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
